18.08 Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has also said he will come to Paris on Sunday, when a mass rally will be held in the wake of the Charlie hebdo attacks.

19.46 Earlier David Cameron tweeted he would join the French president and other world leaders. Now AFP reports Angela Merkel, German chancellor, will also attend the mass rally in Paris on Sunday.

21.44 The leaders of Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Ukraine also said they would attend the Paris rally on Sunday. European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said they would attend the rally as well, accompanied by EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini.

They’re all climbing aboard. There’ll be lots of pious talk about freedom, shared values, dignity, etc. – like this from Barack Obama:

“We fight alongside you to uphold our values, the values we share. Universal values that bind us together as friends and as allies. In the streets of Paris the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. They have nothing to offer but hatred and human suffering, and we stand for freedom and hope and the dignity of all human beings, and that’s what the city of Paris represents to the world.”

And then on Monday they’ll be back at work destroying those freedoms, tearing up the shared values, annulling everyone’s dignity, suppressing all hope, as they continue (among other wars) their Global War on Smokers.

Aww, bless. Don’t they all just luuuurve an opportunity to show how “genuinely caring and compassionate” they are, and how concerned they all are about real people getting hurt and killed, when the truth is that all they are really bothered about are their own pet hate-projects, the linings of their own very deep pockets and the wellbeing of their own families, friends and personal cronies. Hypocrisy at its finest. Do they really think that anyone is fooled by all this rushing to Paris to try and “out-grief” each other by seeing who can put on the saddest face and who can look the most “serious and shocked” over this incident, whilst all the time they are plotting similarly nasty, albeit less overt, ways to destroy the freedoms which they say these ghastly terrorists are “threatening.”

I am often reminded that politicians used to say that the terrorists aim was to “destroy the British way of life” but looking back over the last 17 years, the only ones who ever managed to do that were the politicians themselves.

If we mourn the tobacco control induced destruction of traditional English pubs we are being told to ‘go with the times’.
Unlike tobacco control’s cited “deaths from tobacco enjoyment”, the death caused by it’s ?copy cats (just ignore vetos, walz in and take over) are REAL deaths. Just like to deaths caused by the Ebola epidemic. The WHO in it’s (w)holiness has forbidden independent reports about it – in eager anticipation of their pure enjoyment of torturing smokers.
All our politicians think this is fine. Tomorrow they all meet up in Paris to move their mouths according to: “We fight alongside you to uphold our values, the values we share. Universal values that bind us together as friends and as allies. In the streets of Paris the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. They have nothing to offer but hatred and human suffering, and we stand for freedom and hope and the dignity of all human beings, and that’s what the city of Paris represents to the world.”

Then they go home to arm AS (Anti-smoking State) with the weapons it needs to further fragment our society so we all cannot stand united.

Not quite: Willem was on a train at the time of the attack, while Riss survived, but sustains a serious leg injury.

In recent years, the highly prolific Cabu committed some antis-friendly or at least antis-compatible cartoons and stated that he didn’t like the smell of smoke (found a first-hand testimony published two days ago: http: //blog.kitclope.fr/cabu-ca-pue-ta-clope/), but since his career started in 1954 it’s difficult to tell in what measure this has been an acquired distaste (we all know how adept the ANTZs proved to be, throughout these six past decades, at turning some sensory dislike, however slight, into a serious – and censorious – aversion).

In 2007, Charb published a set of sketches called “J’aime pas les fumeurs” (I don’t like smokers).
In the linked article “l’anti-cigarette converti au cigare”, after declaring himself ‘in favour of all anti-cigarette laws’, he goes on to tell of how he was introduced and ‘converted’ to Cuban cigars by his friend and colleague Wolinski: a case of cognitive dissonance that will forever remain unresolved.

The real problem is that the “leaders” of the western world are all pious blather and no action. They’re either so PC, or using PC as a cover for cowardice or lunatic laissez-faire, that that won’t even name the enemy except to categorize it, not us, as the victim. As though the dogs of war could be pacified with a tummy rub and a treat . As though boasting about “values” does anything to preserve them.

Small shops have to cover up all names and prices of cigarettes by April 6th or face severe punishment for letting customers read them.

Fears rise over DIY tobacco display ban gantries by independents

“Thousands of independent convenience store owners are facing large fines if they implement their own solutions to the tobacco display ban on 6 April, according to new research.
The research by point-of-sale specialist CJ Retail Solutions revealed that 25% of c-store owners were “determined to implement their own DIY solutions to the display ban”.

These solutions included hanging curtains in front of the tobacco gantry and even using existing roller shutters to cover stock.

Surely, such a rally would be a protest against policies imposed and encouraged by current and recent European and US administrations? After all, it was their policies that was ultimately responsible for these 20 deaths. And several 100,000’s across the Middle East.

I went today to an upmarket liquor store in a fancy mall in central Bangkok because I was told that they carry a fairly extensive range of rolling tobacco, and I wanted to try something different. Thailand, as uber-enthusiastic signatories to the FCTC, introduced covered displays years ago (maybe 10 or so? I can’t remember exactly when they first appeared), so as a result, when I was at the cash desk where the tobacco was kept in a (covered) unit behind, I obviously had no idea what stock they carried. So I had to get the very busy cashier to get packets out to show me, one by one. Among the raft of stupid, nannying laws that Thailand has put in place at the behest of the Public Health fascists is also one that decrees that no alcohol can be sold between 2 pm and 5 pm. I was at the counter checking out their stock at just before 2 pm, so I created a massive backlog of customers who wanted to pay for their expensive bottles of wine before the 2 pm deadline.

What a bloody pathetic, cretinously stupid system.

Neither of these laws will reduce smoking or drinking one iota – all they achieve is to cause massive inconvenience for both customer and retailer. I really find it difficult to understand the mentality of people who create these totally unnecessary hurdles for ordinary people to jump. Do they honestly think they are helping anybody by making life more difficult than it already is? Or is it just that they enjoy tormenting people of whose habits they disapprove?

“Display of tobacco products at point of sale in itself constitutes advertising and promotion.Display of products is a key means of promoting tobacco products and tobacco use,including by stimulating impulse purchases of tobacco products,giving the impression that tobacco use is socially acceptable and making it harder for tobacco users to quit.

13.To ensure that points of sale of tobacco products do not have any promotional elements. Parties should introduce a total ban on any display and on the visibility of tobacco products at points of sale, including fixed retail outlets and street vendors.
Only textual listing of products and their prices, without any promotional elements, would be allowed.
As for all aspects of Article 13 of the convention, the ban should apply in ferries, airplanes,ports and airports.

14. Vending machines should be banned because they constute by their very presence a means of advertising or promotion under the terms of the Convention.”

16. Plain packaging.

The effect of advertising or promotion on packaging can be eliminated by requiring plain packaging: black and white or two contrasting colours, as prescribed by national authorities: nothing other than a brand name and/or manufacturer’s name, contact details and the quantity of the product in the packaging, without any logos or other features apart from health warnings, tax stamps and other government mandated information or markings: prescribed font style and size: and standardized shape, size and materials.
There should be no advertising or promotion inside or attached to the package or on individual cigarettes or other tobacco products”

I bet a lot of manufacturers would give their eye teeth to have their competitors products hidden from sight.

As far as I know there weren’t many takers for the first attempt to move patches and gum into the mainstream.

Nicotine gum and patches to be sold in pubs and clubs – 1998

“NICOTINE GUM is to be sold in pubs, clubs and corner shops alongside cigarettes, following a landmark ruling by the Government’s medicines regulator.

The Department of Health’s medicines watchdog has lifted a ban on selling Nicorette chewing gum outside chemists to help people give up smoking.

The move, to be announced this month, is the first step in a major review of government policy on smoking and health.

It comes on the eve of a White Paper in which ministers will announce plans to hand out free nicotine gum and patches to those on low incomes.

Under the current law, nicotine gum can only be sold if a pharmacist is present to give advice on its use. This means that people who want the gum outside normal chemist opening hours often resort to buying cigarettes to curb their cravings.

The ruling on nicotine gum by the Medicines Control Agency opens the route for nicotine patches and stronger nicotine-based products to be sold by ordinary shopkeepers, publicans and restaurateurs. “It’s absurd that you can buy cigarettes anywhere and at any time of day or night but with pharmaceutical products it’s much more difficult to get access to them,” said Martin Jarvis, Principal Scientist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. “We know that nicotine replacement helps people to quit and making it more widely available is a good thing.”

The gum, which releases low levels of nicotine when chewed, does not contain the tar which causes cancer. Each piece of 2mg gum produces the same amount of nicotine as half a cigarette.

The decision will break the monopoly of chemists such as Boots which are the only retailers allowed to sell nicotine replacement therapies under the current law.”

“Pubs and restaurants, those well-proven stumbling blocks for the quitting smoker, will stock nicotine gums and patches after the smoking ban comes into force on July 1, The Times has learnt.

Leading firms are taking advantage of changes in the regulation of nicotine replacement products by targeting areas where smokers are most likely to suffer cravings. The first nicotine gum machines, the postsmoking ban equivalent of the dingy fixtures found in the corner of watering holes across the country, will arrive in venues next month.

I’m currently in Thailand, and would you believe, the incumbent military junta has blocked the Daily Mail site! All I get from the link is a screen in Thai script saying that access to the web page is not available. I’m guessing that at some point the Mail ran an article that maybe suggested a link between the monarchy and the coup (a link which I’m convinced is very real), and under the strict lese majeste laws pertaining here have blacklisted all content from the Mail.

In fairness Al Jazeera has been and is producing balanced reporting of events in Paris.

There’s a great deal of sanctimonious rot on the news networks at the moment. Lot’s of reporters voicing their (generally facile) opinions as to why it happened and Al Jazeera is up there with the rest of them, though not overtly siding with any Muslim agenda.

Certainly they’re not trying to identify with the rest as being “Charlie”, however they show those gatherings where the printouts are clearly displayed.

For straight factual reporting I find NHK and Arise to be the most impartial and reliable.

And, to their credit, NHK are still concentrating on the air disaster in Indonesia.

MUMBAI: Two of three scientists at a session on climate change and society at the Indian Science Congress on Tuesday felt fears of man-made global warming were greatly exaggerated. Their presence at the conference was particularly significant in light of the current ‘development-versus-envir- onment’ debates.

“While I agree that glaciers are melting because of global warming, if this is because of man, then what was the reason for the melting of the glaciers in the ..

“The UN’s climate science body has admitted that a claim made in its 2007 report – that Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035 – was unfounded.

The admission today followed a New Scientist article last week that revealed the source of the claim made in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was not peer-reviewed scientific literature – but a media interview with a scientist conducted in 1999.
Several senior scientists have now said the claim was unrealistic and that the large Himalayan glaciers could not melt in a few decades.”http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jan/20/ipcc-himalayan-glaciers-mistake

Flooded out – 1999

“MELTING Himalayan glaciers are threatening to unleash a torrent of floods into mountain valleys, and ultimately dry up rivers across South Asia. A new study, due to be presented in July to the International Commission on Snow and Ice (ICSI), predicts that most of the glaciers in the region will vanish within 40 years as a result of global warming.

“All the glaciers in the middle Himalayas are retreating,” says Syed Hasnain of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, the chief author of the ICSI report. A typical example is the Gangorti glacier at the head of the River Ganges, which is retreating at a rate of 30 metres per year. Hasnain’s four-year study indicates that all the glaciers in the central and eastern Himalayas could disappear by 2035 at their present rate of decline.”http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16221893.000-flooded-out.html

Glad you raise the subject, Harley. I do have (yet another) question:
Driving home through the high wind and hail stones this morning I was beginning to wonder about the gradual slowing of the Earth’s rotation. This year there will be 1 second added to keep our time up to speed.
Sure, 1 second over how much time? does not seem a lot, yet, surely this does have an impact on our climate and the movement of molten minerals inside the core over time, thus more erratic shifts in the magnetic field.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in adjusting to our ageing Earth rather than stifle the technology that might be bring the Earth’s inhabitants the possibility to survive?

Sometimes I think that out ‘glorious saviours’ forbid to view the ‘problem’ from every possible angle. Will ‘our glorious saviours’ in the end be all our killers?

Want to know the real unemployment #’s? Then follow the U6
stats.
(The way unemployed used to be calculated before Obama started pulling #’s
out of a hat)
They clearly show real unemployment closer to 23%

He is very sceptically looking into the pressure excerted on smokers to become non-smokers by any means; some of these means posing a great risk to smokers’ well being.
As usual, it is a packed post; many different angles to consider, not sure if google translate can make sense of half of it!

2014 presented my offspring (!) with 3 friends no longer willing to live.
I guess Prof. Grieshaber may never be able to establish this incresing number of psychological casualties that the likes of the WHO does not acknowledge. The WHO lifts the grass of the lawn and brushes them under it, just as it does with the Ebola epidemic victims, whilst spending tax payers’ contributions on lavish “conferences” to add more pressure on smokers.

This is yet another blog post worthy of translation (as is Prof. Ropohl’s little book) – I wish I had the time to do so!

The last part does ring a bell: The WHO does not feel apparently called to denounce the excesses of the modern working world, let alone that they in this case, the proverbial battle “David vs. Goliath”, as it supposedly so bravely against the tobacco industry is, would want to add. On the contrary, where the employer takes citing health always broader attack on the last remaining private niches of its employees, finds its explicit approval. The rest of it does not take note of, at least the time being. If the disease rates soar on for a few years with mental illness at the same pace, but it will not be able to ignore the long term.

“Lassana Bathily, 24, originally from Mali in west Africa, ushered customers into the cold store at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes on Friday, where Ahmedi Couibaly had taken a number of people hostage.”

“I went down to the freezer, I opened the door, there were several people who went in with me. I turned off the light and the freezer,” he told the French TV station BFMTV.

“I brought them inside and I told them to stay calm here, I’m going to go out. When they got out, they thanked me.”

He slipped away using a goods lift and was able to provide police with valuable information about what has happening inside the store.

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